‘The Music of the Nightmare: “Sounds of Hate” revisited’ is the title of an article by Allon Lee, published in the December 2007 issue of the Australia/Israel Review, the monthly publication of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. It’s a re-examination of neo-Nazi trends in contemporary music, based on an earlier article by Tzvi Fleischer called ‘Sounds of Hate’, published in the August 2000 issue. What follows is a brief commentary on Lee’s article in which I make a number of criticisms and corrections.
And now the end, the end is near / It’s time to say our last goodbyes
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
Is it reality or just a nightmare / Nightmare, nightmare
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide / No escape, no escape
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
Is it reality or just a nightmare / Nightmare, nightmare
Doomsday, doomsday / It’s doomsday, doomsday
While a little on the lurid side — “neo-Nazi and far-right wing music is designed to lure, inculcate and brainwash impressionable minds to hate in the name of blood, honour and the supremacy of the white man” — Lee’s description of the purpose of neo-Nazi music is fairly accurate: it’s a propaganda tool. Further, like fascist doctrines generally, it appeals (like music generally), on a non-rational, emotional level, as well as a conscious, ‘political’ level. The $64,000 question, of course, is what kind of a society is it that produces young white men for whom such ideological and emotional posturing is, in fact, appealing…
Roots
On the history of neo-Nazi muzak, Lee is on some fairly shaky ground. For example:
1) “Punk music grew out of “Oi!” music which was itself influenced by Reggae and Ska, and was a manifestation of British working class culture”; in reality, the reverse is true — ‘oi!’ grew out of punk. And in terms of influences, Lee appears to be confusing the musical genre of oi! with the skinhead subculture as a whole. Thus skinhead predates oi!, and while oi! is usually defined as being a skinhead genre — while reggae and ska music are also very popular among skinheads — oi! owes far more to punk than it does the latter two genres, to which it owes very little.
2) “The attraction of “Oi!” bands like Sham ’69, the Angelic Upstarts and the Cockney Rejects for neo-Nazi skinheads was not necessarily a desirable outcome for many of these bands, especially when racist slogans [were] chanted by audience members. Eventually the skinhead movement produced their own authentic bands like the 4-Skins”; an odd statement, in some ways. Thus while it’s true that bands like Sham ’69 (1975–1980…), the Angelic Upstarts (1977+) and the Cockney Rejects (1979–1985…) didn’t appreciate racist sloganeering at gigs, the fact is the presence of neo-Nazis caused all sorts of trouble for the bands, both at gigs and in general. In their early years, this — rather than any principled opposition to fascism in the guise of the National Front (for example) — is what appears to have caused the most tension. Secondly, by any measure that I’m aware of, the 4-Skins (1979–1984, 2007+) are no more nor less authentically ‘skinhead’ than any of the other bands mentioned; in fact, one of the former members of the 4-Skins (1983–1984) Paul Swain later joined Skrewdriver.
3) “An anti-skinhead initiative in the late-1970s by British punk bands called “Rock Against Racism” provided a united front against the skinheads and the rising influence of the neo-Nazi National Front political party, prompting the latter to establish its own record label called White Noise Records in the early-1980s”; in reality, RAR was not initiated by British punk bands, nor was it ‘anti-skinhead’. RAR was what it’s name implies — Rock Against Racism (not British Punk Against Skinhead). Its formation was prompted not just by racist skinheads, but racism in the mainstream of the music industry; famously, remarks by Eric Clapton (against immigrants and for Enoch Powell) and David Bowie (in support of Nazism). Their dickheaded tirades prompted others to organise a series of concerts in which not just punk but reggae and ska bands, with black and white musicians, played together on stage. Why the NF established White Noise, on the other hand, was so it could make money from the racist skinheads by selling them B-grade rock ‘n’ roll with racist lyrics. And that’s exactly what it did.
4) “Skrewdriver’s first album, “All Skrewed Up”, released in 1977, received favourable reviews in mainstream music magazines, including New Musical Express, Sounds, and Melody Maker, emboldening [dead bonehead icon Ian Stuart] Donaldson in his view that the far-right was his spiritual home”; not really. All Skrewed Up contains none of the retarded outpourings on race and nation that characterised later Skrewdriver recordings.
5) “By making the transition, Donaldson made it seem cool for many people to accept the message of white power”; arguably… but again, not really. What made it ‘cool’ for young white men to celebrate white racialist politics was not just poor old boneheaded Ian, but the economic and political circumstances of late ’70s and early ’80s Great Britain, especially those confronting the losers in Thatcher’s class war — the working class. His ‘transition’ also sparked a backlash against the far right’s corruption of skinhead and working class culture more generally.
6) “Although Skrewdriver aligned itself with, and, indeed, was promoted by the British far-right, Donaldson was instrumental in setting up Blood and Honour in 1987, as the National Front was collapsing. To a certain extent the Blood and Honour movement was a trade union for skinhead musicians, who often played gigs organised by political parties but would end up being paid a pittance of the takings”; Donaldson, alongside his good (gay) comrade Nicky Crane, was instrumental in establishing B&H not only because the NF was collapsing — both as a result of its own internal contradictions but also under pressure from anti-fascist activists outside of it — but also because he and other musicians were tired of being used by groups like the NF. In that sense, B&H was not just a union, but a workers’ co-operative (of sorts) for fascist rock ‘n’ rollers.
7) “In the early 1990s, the highly violent Combat-18 (the 18 stands for the position in the alphabet of Adolf Hitler’s initials) was the banner organisation of neo-Nazi ideals in the British music scene, and it was largely formed as a response to the aggressive and successful tactics of anti-fascist groups like Searchlight magazine”; er, no. Searchlight was a magazine which specialised in documenting the far right — true — but in and of itself played a minor role in squeezing the life out of B&H in Great Britain. Combat-18 was, in turn, established partly in order to protect BNP (and B&H) events from disruption by militant anti-fascists organised via networks such as Anti-Fascist Action (1985–2001) and, before that, other groups operating on the margins of the Anti-Nazi League.
Great White Records
Having examined some of the history of skinhead, and the emergence of a fascist current within it in the late ’70s, Lee then turns to the BNP and their much more recent attempt to put their Scheiße to music. The establishment of Great White Records (GWR) represents a further shift away from the crude racism of the BNP’s past, as well as its crude expression via oi! music. Its arrival in January 2006 was greeted not only by groans from music lovers but also an article in The Observer by Neil Mackay (White off the scale, January 22, 2006). The following quote gives some idea of its flavour:
The BNP man, dressed smartly in a pressed white shirt and suit trousers, is about to lay down his first track. He admits that he doesn’t have a strong singing voice. ‘With our swords and our cutlasses, we’ll fight until we die!’ he essays to an old military tune, before forgetting the lyrics and shouting ‘Bollocks!’ Later he talks about the type of music Great White Records will be releasing: ‘I personally quite like reggae but I draw the line at reggae [being released on the label], obviously. We’re not having any bhangra. Unless we turn it into a heavily Anglo-Saxon version, we’re not having any rap either.’
Bonkers, as the Brits like to say. The Lancaster UAF provides some more detail:
What the membership of the party doesn’t generally know is that the GWR studios in Leeds (shared with the BNP’s Excalibur books scam) cost over £1000 a month to run – roughly £12000 per year which is equivalent to the annual membership fees of 400 members. And what precisely does the BNP get for that large investment? A few third-rate songs penned by the Leonard Cohen of the far-right Nick Griffin, BNP councillor Colin Auty singing a racist song about how many Asians there are in Dewsbury and Lee Haggan droning another Griffin song ‘about the domination by foreign cultures of many of our cities and how one day we will reclaim them for the native people’. For God’s sake…
In short, GWR is unlikely to set either the charts or the world ablaze. Note that UK-based doomsters The Prophecy are doing their bit for the BNP and the promotion of racism by recording all their material at Performance studios in Huddersfield with Alan Smith acting as producer; along with David Hannam, Alan is the creative, er genius, behind the fishy label.
Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!
Lee concludes his survey by looking at the scene in Australia and New Zealand. Here he finds that things have quietened down, and he’s largely correct. However, Lee fails to note the role of The Birmingham Hotel in Fitzroy in providing a home for B&H and the Southern Cross Hammerskins for the better part of the last ten years, as well as the fact that the annual Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig — most recently hosted by the Melbourne Croatia Social Club — has been held every year since its inception. Further, not all of the musicians who were active in the ’80s and ’90s have simply gone away, and a number continue to perform in other bands. One prominent local example is Bulldog Spirit, a right-wing skinhead band whose drummer once played not only with Fortress but local neo-Nazi band Deaths Head on a tour of Europe. Another is that of the band THUG, whose lead singer once performed in White Lightning.
The most recent neo-Nazi gig (October 13) was a collaboration between elements of the local Croatian community and B&H and the SCHS. Final War did in fact play at the gig, as did Perth band Quick & the Dead; the gig marking their return to the scene, and with the support of local punk bands in Perth such as The Homicides, happy to share the bill with the aging (and some not-so aging) racists. It’s also worth noting that, just a few short years ago, B&H and the SCHS arranged for the Bully Boys, another US band, to tour locally. Further, that Newcastle-based band Blood Red Eagle, having played Adolf Hitler’s birthday celebrations in Wellington in April (at the HQ of the local branch of the Satan’s Slaves MC) rowed their way to Portland in October to play the abortive 20th birthday celebrations of the global Hammerskins franchise. (Unfortunately for the neo-Nazis, the Elks’ Club proved to be less amenable hosts than the Melbourne Croatia Social Club, and upon learning the true nature of proceedings, told the boneheads to piss off; MCSC, on the other hand, first lied and then agreed to allow the gig to go ahead.)
To be continued…
